International Women’s Day

Here’s to celebrating the contributions of women in technology.

International Women’s Day is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women. It’s a day to recognize the contributions of women throughout history as well as celebrate the work happening today to continue pushing women forward.

For us at eero, it’s especially exciting to reflect on the contributions of women who have paved the way in technology. In 1942, the patent for “frequency hopping” — which helped develop spread-spectrum technology, the basis of WiFi — was granted to Hedy Lamarr and her husband. To this day, Lamarr is considered a pioneer in wireless communications and has been featured in her own Google Doodle.

Lamarr, and her original patent

Other moments in tech h(er)story include Katherine Johnson and her team of engineers at NASA, most recently shown in the Oscar-nominated film, Hidden Figures, for their work on the Freedom 7 mission. Radia Perlman, a software and networking engineer, is the inventor of spanning-tree protocoland was inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame. Dr. Shirley Jackson’s work in telecommunications research led to the portable fax, touch-tone telephone, solar cells, fiber optic cables, the technology that powers caller ID, and call waiting. She was also the first African-American woman to earn a Ph.D. from MIT.

Katherine Johnson and Dr. Shirley Jackson

Radia Perlman

These examples only scratch the surface of the contributions by women to today’s technology. As members of the tech community, it’s especially important to demonstrate leadership for equality in the workplace. We are fortunate to count Trae Vasallo as one of our early investors. Aside from her many contributions in the hardware space, she is a co-author for the Elephant in the Valley survey, which seeks to document the issues women face in the workplace.

We strive to create an environment where women thrive, and take today (and every day) to elevate the achievements of the talented women at eero. We hope to continue to add amazing women to the team as we grow our company and change technology. (hint: we’re hiring)

The Women of eero

Thank you to the women all over the world for your work, and enjoy International Women’s Day. #IWD17